To Be Known

We just finished hammering out our student ministry calendar for summer and fall 2013, organized 2014, and even looked into 2015 for a brief second with our high school pastor.

Yeah, we’re pretty awesome.

JK. JK.

(Just debunking the myth that youth workers are poor planners before I get into the point of this post. Hope you’re smiling and know that half of those plans will change and be changed for me, but at least I can sleep tonight knowing that I set sail in a kind-a-sorta direction and hopefully will land somewhere close!)

Now to the subject at hand.The calendar always begs the question. How do we teach humble servant leadership and compassion to teenagers– does one mission trip every two years help them love God and love others in a deep and sustainable way?

Any mission work that I do with teenagers connects us with a face, a person, a story.And it’s usually after we come to know people (not just ideas of people “over there” or “at that place” etc.) that we really begin to experience compassion and motivation to love justice and mercy.

We begin to care.

It’s why I really like weekend events that shift our focus and call us to action in the context of our every day lives.

I recently wrote about it on the 30 Hour Famine Blog–I wanted to share with leaders, parents, and students the “why we do what we do when we do it stuff” as it relates to this particular experience that we offer each year.

Here’s a little bite.

They decide for themselves, that they took food for granted. They feel the pulling on their stomachs that indicates an uncomfortableness, they learn names and stories and begin to see themselves as one of those who suffers. And they want to change things as they are being changed.

We are able to describe what we have seen, what we have felt, and what we know.Then we can do something.